Hot water cylinder - airing cupboard layout

Slinky

Whilst we were on holiday the plumber has put in our new hot water cylinder and accompanying expansion tanks.  I'm not very happy with the position of these as they take up almost all the usable space at the front of the cupboard, leaving a vast amount of wasted space at the back that I can't reach and where it will be difficult to refit our shelves. We don't have a lot of storage space upstairs and can ill afford to lose usable space in this cupboard.

Is there any reason why these HAVE to be in this position, or can we get the plumber to move them further back? I feel he's just chosen the easiest place for him to reach. If push comes to shove, does the red one need to be at the current height, or can it go higher up to give us a bit more space.  We are having a new boiler as well which is not yet connected, hence temporary plastic piping and other unconnected pipework.

Thanks in advance.

FreeBear

No reason why the expansion vessels can not be mounted further back - The proviso being there is some solid studwork or brick wall it can be attached to.

He certainly needs to come back and modify the pipework to the right - It looks like the blanking plate next to the switch can not be removed without cutting the pipe. He should know better than to do that !

Slinky

Thanks Freebear, all walls are solid. Good spot about the blanking plate.

Slinky

Plumber has moved the expansion tanks, one has gone into the adjoining cupboard which houses the boiler giving me much more useable space.

Bendy_House

Good outcome. Pleased plumber was obliging.

(What was his manner like when asked?!)

Hopefully he'll think about such things a bit more in future - it's all about happy customers.

Lorian

There is some pipe lagging required there so you aren't wasting heat (and hence money)

Slinky

He's a subbie from the builders we are using so I made it the builder's problem. TBF when I joined the conversation 10 minutes later he was fine about it. I dare say we'll end up paying for the changes anyway, but not much I can do about that.

Slinky

Lorian said:

There is some pipe lagging required there so you aren't wasting heat (and hence money)

We do need a bit of heat from the pipes to as it's an airing cupboard. There's absolutely no heat coming off the tank!

ComicGeek

Slinky said:

Lorian said:

There is some pipe lagging required there so you aren't wasting heat (and hence money)

We do need a bit of heat from the pipes to as it's an airing cupboard. There's absolutely no heat coming off the tank!

You will still get heat enough from gaps in the lagging, and around valves etc where they won't fit lagging. Ours is really well lagged but still warm enough 

Bendy_House

Are you going to fit slatted shelves so's it airs thoroughly?

Anyhoo, once it's all up and running, and full of stored stuff, you'll soon find out how warm it'll be in there. The comments above are valid - in such a small closed cupboard, not much heat at all is required. See how it goes, and more lagging is easy to fit if wished, of course.

Seal off around any pipes going through the ceiling!

Gavin83

Lorian said:

There is some pipe lagging required there so you aren't wasting heat (and hence money)

Actually lagging is definitely required. It’s against building regulations not to lag the pipes within a metre of the cylinder. The plumber should obviously know this so I’d be getting them back to fix this too.